Summary: One of the great mysteries of science is understanding where life came from. Since amino acids are the building blocks of life, many scientists believe that amino acids formed themselves into proteins and which eventually were able to react with one another in such a way as to create the first living cell and then, over millions of years, evolved into the many forms of life we see on earth. But there’s something else that is part of life that can’t be so easily explained. This article takes a look at what that is.

One of the great mysteries of science is understanding where life came from. Christians believe that life comes only from God, but most scientists look for a more natural explanation.

It is the prevailing view among most scientists today that life as we know it can be traced back 3.8 billion years but exactly how does something become a living organism from something that had no life is still the subject of much debate. One theory is that “amino acids, often called the building blocks of life, formed via natural chemical reactions… In all living things these amino acids are organized into proteins and the construction of these proteins is mediated by the nucleic acids” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis).According to this theory, it is from the natural chemical reactions of amino acids found in nature that formed into proteins which eventually were able to react with one another in such a way as to create the first living single cell creature.

All living matter is made up of cells and inside every cell is something called DNA, which is a stringy looking substance that resembles a twisted ladder. However, DNA is much more than just chemicals interacting with one another. It is a highly sophisticated and intricately made set of instructions that has to be precisely written and then accurately read in order for all living plants and animals to grown, develop and reproduce.

The DNA code itself is evidence that there had to be some sort of intelligence behind its design., but there’s another aspect of DNA that must be considered.

Evolutionists claim that all of nature has evolved through trial and error over millions of years because of random changes in the genes found in DNA. One of the ways this happens is when a cell divides in two. During this process it makes an exact duplicate of its DNA so that the newly made cell contains an exact copy of the DNA found in the old cell. However, every so often, by sheer chance, something goes wrong with this process and one or more of the genes in the new cell are slightly different in some way than those of its parent cell. When this new cell divides it makes an exact duplicate of itself, thereby recreating the same errors in its genes.

When these changes take place in animals it most often makes them less able to survive, which eventually causes their breed to die off. However, it’s said that once in a while these random changes in the genetic code have a beneficial effect that actually helps the animal survive better than its parents. When this happens, they are able to grow and flourish better than other animals. But, according to the teachings of evolution, these changes take place randomly and gradually over millions of years.

However, without DNA there could be no life because it contains the instructions for how life continues. For that reason, it is impossible for DNA to have evolved gradually through trial and error because that very first single-cell living organism wouldn’t have been able to reproduce itself and without doing that life on this planet would have ceased to exist the moment that single cell died.

But there is another problem of intelligence that confronts the evolutionists. Although there is evidence of intelligence in the design of life, there is also the inherent quality of intelligence itself within all animal life.

One of the definitions of intelligence is the ability to think and to reason, and it is a fact that not all humans are able to think and reason as well as others, and the same is true throughout the entire animal world. Cats and dogs are able to think and reason but not as well as humans, but they can do that better than a bird, who has more ability to think than does a spider. And we can extend this process all the way down to the simplest animal.

To think involves the ability to make a decision. For example, since animals have the ability to go wherever they want, they have to decide if they want to go to the right, to the left, go straight, or go back from where they came. They also know they need food in order to survive so they consciously seek to find nourishment when they need it. But to make those kinds of decisions is more than just chemicals reacting to one another. It takes a certain amount of intelligence, even if it is extremely rudimentary.

In addition to this, intelligence also includes the ability to feel and express emotions such as being happy, sad, worried, angry, indifference, fear, surprise, shock, frustration, boredom, confusion, despair, or disgust.

Most animals have some sort of a “brain” which is the organ that gives them the ability to think and express emotions. Therefore, evolutionists say that what gives us intelligence is our brain and, as the brain has evolved over millions of years, so has intelligence increased in the same way that computers have evolved and are now able to perform better, faster, and more complex functions. Similarly, they say the reason why humans are more intelligent than other animals is because our brain has evolved into being a better thinking machine.

The brain has the ability to receive information, store it, and retrieve it upon demand but that isn’t intelligence. A computer can do that aw well, but it can’t think nor does it have any emotions. It can only do what it was programmed to do by someone else and it never gets tired, bored, or upset with doing it. We have designed robots that can do amazing things that seem almost human-like, but for all their highly sophisticated actions they can’t do the one that even a worm can do and that is to think for itself.

Scientists have been able to map the brain and determine what parts perform what function and they’ve also studied the effects upon thinking that occur when certain parts of the brain are damaged. Geneticists have also discovered a gene that gives instructions for the development of the brain during the growing phase of the fetus that is responsible for thinking. For this reason, scientists have concluded that intelligence is simply the product of the brain’s advanced ability to receive and process information that comes from our genetic makeup working according to the natural laws of biochemistry.

However, if this were truly the case then it would be a simple matter for today’s scientists to create intelligence themselves in a lab.

Advances in modern medical technology has enabled made to make an artificial heart, kidney, legs, arms, and other parts of the body to keep the body functioning, but they haven’t been able to devise a mechanical device that will artificially give a brain-dead person the ability to move even so much as an eyelid, let alone to think on its own.

If the brain is nothing more than a sophisticated computer that receives and stores information from nerves carrying electrical impulses, doctors could simply hook a mechanical device that can do the same thing to a brain-dead person and bring them back to life. But, no computer is able to do that because there is more to the brain than just the biological reactions of nerves, neurons, and synapses carrying and transmitting electrical impulses. There is also something else called intelligence.

To illustrate this principle, in a computer program, there can be a mathematical code that says “If a number is equal to or is greater than zero then add it to the figure in column A but if a number is less than zero add it to the figure in column B.” This will happen exactly the same way every time a number is put in because there is no reasoning involved. The machine has no choice but to do exactly as it has been instructed.

On the other hand, in our society as most children are growing up they are repeatedly instructed by their parents not to do certain things and are often told the consequences for disobeying them, yet one child may choose to obey that instruction while someone else may choose not to.

Another example is that a person may have several routes they could use to get from one place to another but it is their decision alone that determines which route they will use. And for no reason at all they could choose to make a different decision anytime they want, depending on the mood of the person at any given time. By comparison, a machine will always take the same route it was programmed to follow because it has no will. It has to follow the instructions it was given.

Humans are free to choose for themselves what they want to do based on their own desires rather than following a rigid, inflexible set of rules. One person may like broccoli and another person may hate it. That is not something determined by a chemical reaction, or a mathematical program contained in the genes. It is a decision based strictly on desire, and desires are a product of emotions.-. Since a machine is incapable of feeling or desiring anything, it cannot choose for itself what it wants to do.

Machines are designed to behave in a highly predictable manner because of their precisely written code of instructions, but despite the precisely written code found in DNA, humans are capable of behaving in an illogical and unreasonable manner. This demonstrates that there is something else at work in the human mind than just the biological laws of nature.

However, scientists argue that they have been able to identify different regions of the brain that are responsible for performing certain tasks related to thinking. They have also been able to demonstrate that when a certain part of the brain is damaged, it impairs a person’s ability to think. To them, these facts strongly suggest that the brain itself is the source of all intelligence.

The brain has often been compared to a computer, but a computer is merely a mindless tool that is used by someone who has intelligence. For example, modern calculators are capable of making very complex scientific and engineering calculations, but no one would say that a calculator has intelligence. It is merely a machine that has a sophisticated program that allows the operator to get the mathematical answers they need to help them make an informed decision., rather than the calculator making the decisions for them.

In the same way, a computer is an advanced form of a calculator. To illustrate this point, meteorologists have weather models programmed into their computers that takes information supplied by the weatherman which then plots the most likely scenario of what the weather will be like in the near future. However, it is the weatherman who then uses the computer-generated information to make their own decision of what they feel will happen in the future. As such, it is the human who does the thinking, not the computer. The computer is only providing information based on the information it was given.

But if the computer is having hard drive problems or has a virus that is corrupting its operation, the human operator cannot receive the information they need to make an informed decision. In that case, the human will have a hard time making an intelligent judgment.

In the same way, the brain is a piece of machinery that receives, stores, and retrieves information, but if the brain is defective in some way or its ability to process information is impaired, this then limits a person’s ability to think and to reason. But it isn’t the brain alone that’s doing the thinking. It is only the mechanism that a person’s intelligence uses.

Intelligence is not something that can be created in a lab, nor can it be seen under a microscope because it is not something that is physical. Instead, it has almost a metaphysical property to it, meaning that it seems to be beyond the realm that physical science can work with.

Most religions teach that man has a soul or spirit essence which is what gives them life, but because science is unable to see, touch, measure, or test it, they say it is beyond the scientist’s ability to either confirm or deny its existence. In fact, many scientists go so far as to say that because they cannot see, touch, or test a person’s spirit, that it therefore must not exist.

However, we know that intelligence does exist and yet it too cannot be seen or touched. What exactly is intelligence, where does it come from, and what physical properties causes it to exist within the design of our genes, is a complete mystery. For all that man has learned about biology and physiology and all that science has uncovered to support the theory of evolution, they still haven’t been able to overcome the problem of intelligence.

 

 

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